post venezia update.
Ciao.
New update from italy!! I spent a few days in Venice this week. it
was absolutely incredible! I was kind of skeptical at first becuase
i've heard both ways...either it smells and is dirty, or that it's
super romantic and lovey and whatnot...and i didn't want to feel left
out because i wasnt there with someone i loved. as always...the truth
lies somewhere in between. The first day we got there and were
absolutely exhausted and sick of crowds so 5 of us decided to do avoid
cultural things for the day and go shopping!! Of course as always, i
pretty much have no money, and couldn't fit into european sizes if i
wanted to...so i did some window shopping, took some picutres and just
really had a good time.
we went back to the hotel after shopping for a while and showered and
got prettied up to romance ourselves. We went out to dinner, just us 5
girls and had a BLAST!! We decided to spend a bit more money than we
had been on meals, but still found quite a deal. £22 for a three course
meal. Oh! i forgot to mention, it was a cute little candle-lit outdoor
cafe, and when we sat down, there was a man outfront playing music on
an acordian. I got a salad, spagetti with white clam sauce, and fried
calimari. amazing! we all split a bottle of the house wine and sat and
talked for hours. we were actually there so long that they turned off
the lights on us so we would leave. A man came around selling roses and
i bought one for each of the girls. We headed to the Piazza(the central
square)all carrying our roses looking dressed up and whatnot. when we
got there we realized that a bunch of the resturants had outdoor
bandstands that were playing dance music. so we danced in the square,
in the shadow of San Marco basillica and other beautifully arcitectured
renissance buildings. it really was quite a great night out with the
girls.
the next morning we work up at 7AM (because we're crazy) and had
breakfast at the hotel and headed out to be cultured for a change. we
started with the Ducal Palace which is basically a ginormous palace
where the government head lived, but also held Senate meetings, court,
tortured people, held parties, and it connected to a jail. there was a
ton of art and whatnot too. this is the jail that Casanova spent time
in, (for any of you who have seen the recent movie). Then we did another
museum... more art.... there's a lot of art in italy. it's rediculous.
some was good, some was horrible... it was a good time nevertheless.
Lunch was a hugeeee pizza (which im pretty sure that you're supposed to
split) but we each got one, and somehow managed to finish the whole
thing... go figure. We also toured San Marco basillica and some other
artsy things.
Oh!! I forgot. we rode in a gondola... finally! we were supposed to the
first night, but spent so much time at the resturant that we missed it.
sooo... we had a ton of criteria that it took a whole bunch of time to
find a gondoleer that we liked. 1) he had to be cute. 2) he had to sing
to us. 3) he had to be fun or at least have a personality. 4) he had to
be inexpensive. Needless to say, we're a high maintenence group and it
took a really long time to find someone who fit the criteria. We ended
up with a gondaleer named Potato who sang to us a song that sounded
romanic, but when you listened to the words it went something like
"Lasagne, Spaghetti, cocacola lighttttt." it was funny, and we got sung
to, so that's all that really mattered. we added our own italian dishes
to the lyrics and it was great.
After that, we heading to the hotel from the night before to pick up our
bags which were stored in a room. we were all so dirty and gross from
walking around all day so we took showers under the premise that
"someone fell in the canal" ...needless to say, we obviously jinxed
ourselves when the next day we took the water taxi and Natasha and I got
a full lap of water when we hit some wake. Fabulous. haha... i guess we
should have gotten the hint that none of the locals we're sitting in the
back of the boat. whoops. okay... so we headed to our hostall after an
extremely long taxi ride which drove us to exhaustion nearing delerium.
we tried to communicate with the french people next to us...but pretty
much the only idea we got across was asking them for a cheese sandwich.
. . so much for 7 years of french. The hostall was the basics... a
bed...which was pretty uncomfortable... clean sheets, a roll and coffee
in the morning, basics. but the most fabulous part was the fact that i
took the top bunk and got to fall asleep looking out the window upon the
grand canal and the dome of the basillica...something i'll never forget.
oh, and it was totally only 20 bucks! lockers to keep our stuff safe,
and the key to the locker in our bras... it was quite a night.
we woke up the enxt morning and went to Maurano which is an island
famous for its glass...you know venician glass. yea, i absolutaly adore
glass art, so this was an incredible experience for me. we watched some
of the masters blow glass and create incredible things. i also toured
some of the gallaries. fun times. Hey Dad and Maureen... I remembered
your anniversary this year!!! Andddd i bought you a gift. i really am
such a fabulous daughter huh??
we took a train ride home... didn't miss a single train this time!!!
there's something about the italian public transportation which drives
you nuts and makes you crave something american. . . this is the second
time traveling which we've succumbed to the pressure of Mc Donalds!! i
dont even eat the stuff at home. but here it provides some sort of
comfort food.
back in Siena the next day i toured the bapistry and sat in the Campo
and read a book. Google the piazza del campo.. it's pretty much where i
live always. picture me there.
last night we went out to dinner at a cool little outdoor cafe and i got
a great pasta w\ all kinds of seafoody things in it. (can you tell i'm
getting sick of hotel food?). Today we were supposed to go to arezzo
which is basically a place which exemplifies that beautiful "tuscan
hills" image everyone talks about. unfortunately it's sunday...the
europeans don't work to begin with...and on sunday... it's rediculous to
even try. so, public transportation isnt working to our favor. we'll
probably just stay here and... do something.
oh!! last week was "irish week" at the dublin pub here... they had an
outdoor festival complete with irish music. it was really fun. irish
music played by italian men... okay, it wasn't the best, but i felt at
home and thats all that really matters. we danced a bit... not well, but
tried.
oh well. i hope you enjoyed my incredibly long email guiding you through
my rediculous journeys of getting lost and battles with foregin
languages. pictures of all shall be shown when i get home... ib et you
cant wait huh?? my time is siena is nearly up, the city has gotten small
to me by this point, but i absolutely love the city at this point, and
its awesome to know a random city in italy so well. my heart has really
grown for this place. in another week or so, i'm off to tour some
europe-ness. i still dont know where i'm going, but i know holland is
definately one of the stops.
thats all for now. As always, i miss you all incredible amounts and hope
everyone is doing well!!!
Ti amo.
-Kate
New update from italy!! I spent a few days in Venice this week. it
was absolutely incredible! I was kind of skeptical at first becuase
i've heard both ways...either it smells and is dirty, or that it's
super romantic and lovey and whatnot...and i didn't want to feel left
out because i wasnt there with someone i loved. as always...the truth
lies somewhere in between. The first day we got there and were
absolutely exhausted and sick of crowds so 5 of us decided to do avoid
cultural things for the day and go shopping!! Of course as always, i
pretty much have no money, and couldn't fit into european sizes if i
wanted to...so i did some window shopping, took some picutres and just
really had a good time.
we went back to the hotel after shopping for a while and showered and
got prettied up to romance ourselves. We went out to dinner, just us 5
girls and had a BLAST!! We decided to spend a bit more money than we
had been on meals, but still found quite a deal. £22 for a three course
meal. Oh! i forgot to mention, it was a cute little candle-lit outdoor
cafe, and when we sat down, there was a man outfront playing music on
an acordian. I got a salad, spagetti with white clam sauce, and fried
calimari. amazing! we all split a bottle of the house wine and sat and
talked for hours. we were actually there so long that they turned off
the lights on us so we would leave. A man came around selling roses and
i bought one for each of the girls. We headed to the Piazza(the central
square)all carrying our roses looking dressed up and whatnot. when we
got there we realized that a bunch of the resturants had outdoor
bandstands that were playing dance music. so we danced in the square,
in the shadow of San Marco basillica and other beautifully arcitectured
renissance buildings. it really was quite a great night out with the
girls.
the next morning we work up at 7AM (because we're crazy) and had
breakfast at the hotel and headed out to be cultured for a change. we
started with the Ducal Palace which is basically a ginormous palace
where the government head lived, but also held Senate meetings, court,
tortured people, held parties, and it connected to a jail. there was a
ton of art and whatnot too. this is the jail that Casanova spent time
in, (for any of you who have seen the recent movie). Then we did another
museum... more art.... there's a lot of art in italy. it's rediculous.
some was good, some was horrible... it was a good time nevertheless.
Lunch was a hugeeee pizza (which im pretty sure that you're supposed to
split) but we each got one, and somehow managed to finish the whole
thing... go figure. We also toured San Marco basillica and some other
artsy things.
Oh!! I forgot. we rode in a gondola... finally! we were supposed to the
first night, but spent so much time at the resturant that we missed it.
sooo... we had a ton of criteria that it took a whole bunch of time to
find a gondoleer that we liked. 1) he had to be cute. 2) he had to sing
to us. 3) he had to be fun or at least have a personality. 4) he had to
be inexpensive. Needless to say, we're a high maintenence group and it
took a really long time to find someone who fit the criteria. We ended
up with a gondaleer named Potato who sang to us a song that sounded
romanic, but when you listened to the words it went something like
"Lasagne, Spaghetti, cocacola lighttttt." it was funny, and we got sung
to, so that's all that really mattered. we added our own italian dishes
to the lyrics and it was great.
After that, we heading to the hotel from the night before to pick up our
bags which were stored in a room. we were all so dirty and gross from
walking around all day so we took showers under the premise that
"someone fell in the canal" ...needless to say, we obviously jinxed
ourselves when the next day we took the water taxi and Natasha and I got
a full lap of water when we hit some wake. Fabulous. haha... i guess we
should have gotten the hint that none of the locals we're sitting in the
back of the boat. whoops. okay... so we headed to our hostall after an
extremely long taxi ride which drove us to exhaustion nearing delerium.
we tried to communicate with the french people next to us...but pretty
much the only idea we got across was asking them for a cheese sandwich.
. . so much for 7 years of french. The hostall was the basics... a
bed...which was pretty uncomfortable... clean sheets, a roll and coffee
in the morning, basics. but the most fabulous part was the fact that i
took the top bunk and got to fall asleep looking out the window upon the
grand canal and the dome of the basillica...something i'll never forget.
oh, and it was totally only 20 bucks! lockers to keep our stuff safe,
and the key to the locker in our bras... it was quite a night.
we woke up the enxt morning and went to Maurano which is an island
famous for its glass...you know venician glass. yea, i absolutaly adore
glass art, so this was an incredible experience for me. we watched some
of the masters blow glass and create incredible things. i also toured
some of the gallaries. fun times. Hey Dad and Maureen... I remembered
your anniversary this year!!! Andddd i bought you a gift. i really am
such a fabulous daughter huh??
we took a train ride home... didn't miss a single train this time!!!
there's something about the italian public transportation which drives
you nuts and makes you crave something american. . . this is the second
time traveling which we've succumbed to the pressure of Mc Donalds!! i
dont even eat the stuff at home. but here it provides some sort of
comfort food.
back in Siena the next day i toured the bapistry and sat in the Campo
and read a book. Google the piazza del campo.. it's pretty much where i
live always. picture me there.
last night we went out to dinner at a cool little outdoor cafe and i got
a great pasta w\ all kinds of seafoody things in it. (can you tell i'm
getting sick of hotel food?). Today we were supposed to go to arezzo
which is basically a place which exemplifies that beautiful "tuscan
hills" image everyone talks about. unfortunately it's sunday...the
europeans don't work to begin with...and on sunday... it's rediculous to
even try. so, public transportation isnt working to our favor. we'll
probably just stay here and... do something.
oh!! last week was "irish week" at the dublin pub here... they had an
outdoor festival complete with irish music. it was really fun. irish
music played by italian men... okay, it wasn't the best, but i felt at
home and thats all that really matters. we danced a bit... not well, but
tried.
oh well. i hope you enjoyed my incredibly long email guiding you through
my rediculous journeys of getting lost and battles with foregin
languages. pictures of all shall be shown when i get home... ib et you
cant wait huh?? my time is siena is nearly up, the city has gotten small
to me by this point, but i absolutely love the city at this point, and
its awesome to know a random city in italy so well. my heart has really
grown for this place. in another week or so, i'm off to tour some
europe-ness. i still dont know where i'm going, but i know holland is
definately one of the stops.
thats all for now. As always, i miss you all incredible amounts and hope
everyone is doing well!!!
Ti amo.
-Kate